Debra and I rented a cabin at Lake Alpine  for my birthday. We arrived at noon and checked into a “rustic” cabin at Lake Alpine resort. We turned west again for an afternoon at my favorite Hwy 4 lake.

Bottom of the ramp was 50 ft from the water but we managed to launch Bauxite Betty with a bit of wading. Wind was up and temps were mild.

Fishing was easy

Scenery spectacular as always

Water levels here are hurting. Fish bit Thomas Bouyants, Panther Martins, Kast Masters, Super Dupers,J5 Rapalas. I never touched the downriggers. We made it back to Alpine for bar food at the lounge and another Giants win.

Next morning Debra cooked breakfast burritos and we packed sandwich makings. We launched into a chock full Alpine 100 yards away from our cabin.

3 laps around the lake yielded a fish per lap. I decided to put the boat back on the trailer and we headed up to Highland Lakes. We hiked up the to Tryon Meadows and tried to win the ridge behind but snow blocked the path. Debra does not like fording streams.

The last half mile of the road to Highland was blocked by snow but should be open in 1-2 weeks. We stopped and fished the Mokolumne on the way down to Alpine. The river was in fine shape but I suck at stream fishing.

Dinner that night at Serafina’s Kitchen in Arnold. Well worth the drive down the mountain.
I took a couple of casts back at Alpine where hundreds of risers were slurping something on top.

That’s my idea of a birthday.

Normally I like to kick off Memorial day with a camping trip but graduations got in the way. So, Thelma and Randy with newbie Mark met Debra and I  at South Beach Saturday morning. Off to Meatballs baiterie for a half scoop of pinners. Word from the baitman was a Saturday snap at Elephant Rock for linesides.  Weather was near perfect with 15 kts max predicted.

I wish I got more use out of her but I love my boat.

Relatively weak tides had me hoping for butts. We scoped the reefs around Alcatraz but set up on the west side of Angel. No dice and off to Southampton. Met  half the fleet there. I hooked a nice striper off the bow but broke a hook in half due to operator error/excessive enthusiasm. Next drift produced a keeper for Randy and Thelma’s dinner.

Of to the NW tip of Treasure Island for many exciting drifts amongst the throngs. Lots of linesides volunteering for BBQ duty but they avoided our stuff. Randy hooked two weird baitfish I could not identify?

Wind waves caused two beers to spill so we wound them up and headed to lunch. We lunched/mooched in the lee at Paradise but I know better than to camp there because naps soon follow. Back to the shoals and Richmond harbor entrance. Off to Red Rock for some interesting rocky drifts producing nothing but sharks.

As we headed back  south I spied with my glass eye a gaggle of party boats near Racoon straits.

We drifted in combat conditions for an hour watching many small stripers come to the net but we remained untouched.

Back to the dock by 5:00.

Debra and I stayed aboard Sunday night. I like South Beach harbor but miss the North Beach vibe we had at P39. Dinner at Salt House. We are talking Poutine. Look it up. Watched the Secret Life of Walter Mitty (weak!) and missed the meteor shower.

Next morning we had breakfast at Epicenter Cafe on Harrison (2 thumbs up) and back to the brickyard for a miserable Cubs victory.

Very emotional couple of days for Debra and I. Both kids successfully graduating from San Jose State. I could not be more proud and happy.

Debra and I had a business meeting in Ranch Cordova Friday so we loaded up the Rover for adventures. After a vigorous ass chewing by a major client we headed out Sunrise Ave (tail between our legs) out the back way to Jackson, home of Swingle Meats, The Carnivore’s Toy Store, Specializing in Marinated Meats, open in Jackson, CA since 1945.  We made a quick stop at Jackson Rancheria where we contributed to the Indian Children’s fund. I briefly contemplated hitting Bear River Reservoir

but continued climbing on to Silver Lake on Hwy 88.

Not a lot of snow up high this year. Wind was howling so I was reluctant to pay the $5 fee. A helpful employee there told me to go ahead and fish as he had just put the signs up for the season.

We threw junk for an hour and then pushed onto  Caples where we found a bit of ice still in place and more wind. We found a little lee near the corner of the dam and Debra read in the car while I flailed the water.

Skunk number two. Stopped to photo Kirkwood for Chilly B

and continued to Red Lake. I hooked and lost a small Lahontan on the Kastmaster but failed to land. No fun was casting into a full on gale sweeping down from Carson Pass. We ascended to the west fork of the Carson which was in great shape

Bookmarked that for later and went ahead to check in at Sorensons resort where we booked Creekside cabin.

Back on the road for an afternoon at Indian Creek Reservoir for yet another skunk.

We had a nice dinner at the cafe at the resort and knocked back a  tasty Malbec for desert.

Up early Saturday for what was to be an awesome road trip. 88 to Markleeville and up Monitor pass.

2 miles up we turned left on Loopeville road to 4 wheel back into the “Mining District”.

We wheeled in some 10 miles into sage and Jeffrey pine. Nothing gets Debra more excited than the words “Let’s go explore some abandoned mines!” (Cue eye rolling).

We came across some Basque camps with carvings and interesting waterworks.

It started to get VERY steep and rocky so I turned us around about the time I realized that I had at least 6 forks in the road to remember how to get out. Fun climb back down the the pavement and back up and over Monitor. Beautiful scenery with the aspens just starting to bloom.

Down to the east side and north on 395 where I was skunked yet again at Topaz.

There were some small black bugs emerging with swallows and rising trout but they wanted nothing to do with my stuff. We tried to find Basque food in Gardnerville but settled for mediocre mexican. 207 was closed into Tahoe so we continued north.  We rolled up and over into south shore to be greeted by a serious snow squall headed south from Truckee across the lake.

We played in the casinos until 6:30 PM while it snowed hard outside. Pizza and salad in south shore and we completed the loop  with the half hour drive back to Sorensons. Fresh snow everywhere made for some cool pix.

Big fire, a bottle of Sangiovese and books (Deer Hunting With Jesus) were the order of the night as there is no internet or phone.

We packed up Sunday morning and headed back towards Markleeville but this time we stayed on 4.

We fished the East fork in a couple of spots and Debra got some  cast practice.

The climb up Ebbetts Pass is never fails to blow me away. On the way back we hit Kinney (Half frozen),

Mosquito (3/4 frozen) and Alpine for more skunkage.

Highlight of the return trip was a stop in Murphys for grub at Historic Murphys Hotel and wine tasting at Twisted Oak (I am a member of the Twisted Few) where we restocked our supply of  River of Skulls and Spaniard. I love me some Mourvedre.

Had the pleasure of attending my first NorCal Kayak organized events. Great group of people. Rained hard on Friday on my way up

Rogue groups of gypsies wandered in an out taking refuge from the storm

I found some prefish action

Had a lot of fun sailing around

Camped next to the Ahulls

See above for grub (Thanks Debra!). Had a good time camping with old friend Dangerous Trebles and new acquaintance ScottV

Day of the derby found me headed for the west wall due north. I threw everything for bass for doodly. Beat over to  to the east wall coming out of Steele Canyon. I sucked hind tit until I busted out mini crawlers under a bobber pitched 3 ft from shore. It was on like King Kong until I ran out of worms. I ran the same stretch of wall fighting the wind for an hr and a half.

Many fruitless hrs spent trolling from the top to 50 ft deep probing for salmonids.

Had to pedal my ass off to make it back for 1:00 PM weigh in.

One huge party Sunday to wrap up the event.

Summary:

Thank you FishWorks! NCKA kicks ass. You could not escape a campsite without being offered food etc. Looking forward to the next event.

I have been very busy rigging up for the Berryessa Salmon Slam this weekend with the NCKA crowd. Camping and fishing Lake Berryessa for 3 days. This will be fun.

AI cradles mounted=done

CF numbers lasered and mounted=done

Downrigger mounted=done

Skwoosh hi-back mounted=done

Lasered leather patches/badges for Fishworks to give out=done

Lasered plaques for 1st-3rd place=done

Special mahogany lasered plaque for the organizer=done

Debra and I spent the night aboard and the Stellmans joined us Sat morning at the reasonable hour of 8. First time out in the big boat in MANY months. The CLipper race was headed off on their 8 month adventure.

Was a bit sporty under the bridge but not bad at Baker beach where we dropped off two rounds baited with chicken parts in 50 ft and two hexagonal hot whammy traps in seemingly calm 120 ft spot.

Off to Southhampton for some mimosas, makers mark  and trolling 12 ft of water in really nice weather.

Couple of skiffs out. Crew put out 4 light setups with flashers, procure and popsickles. No action in an hr so we headed to Paradise and stumbled across the entire fleet. At least 6 PB’s and an equal number of sixpacks mixed with every skiff that had been blown off the flats. Few nets flying but slow for a couple of hours. Debra put out some amazing sammies with corned beef, turkey etc we had picked up from Millers East Coast West on Polk St.  Out came the red wine and Stellas. Jerry and Leanna combined to get the skunk off. Of course more red wine to celebrate.

Out the gate around 2 or so to the shallow pots. They were right on the marks. It was rocking and rolling pretty good but  we got both pots located and they yielded a couple. These two guys kicked ass on the manual labor stuff whilst I guided us through 6 ft rollers with an occasional 8 thrown in.

The 120 ft pots unfortunately were out of site in the current since it turned out we dropped in the potato patch LOL. So  we did the rodeo thing for better than an hr trying to scan the whitewater for buoys. Crew starts grumbling and rightly so. I decided to dash over to Bonita cove where we were grateful for a respite from the wind. Played freighter tag on the way across

Sure enough an hr later the pots popped back up and we were out of there with a handful of crustys. Both pots had walked a 1/4 of a mile trying to join a little graveyard of lost pots in the the corner there.

Nice ride back

Long day but had this to show for it.

Stellman and I put the yaks in the drink 9:00 AM Saturday 3-8-14 ready to harvest piggies

WX superb. Nappy time conditions

Started off in the Narrows. Lectric green water and sloooooooooooooooow conditions

Exited the narrows for the main body. Couple of drivebys and it was time for lunch

Venison burgers, onions, tomatos and peppers  courtesy of Jerrys Kids.

Was a darkie beer day.

Muenster cheese added, smells great

Put 11 miles on the sled.

Afternoon bite was………nonexistent

Jerry woke me up mid afternoon with a hail mary ditch pickerel

Commanche officially sucks.

Debra and I left Pleasanton at noon up and over Donner pass. Not much fluffy stuff up there.

We checked into the Nougat and met up with Mr. and Mrs Dangerous Trebles for food drinks and a spot of wagering. Mike fished Friday afternoon for nada but there were reports of fish being caught so I was pumped and did not sleep well. Mike and I left Sparks Saturday AM and headed north. Clear and cold but not quite ice in the guides cold.

We met Crash at Blockhouse and commenced to flailing the water with all manner of exotic fish attracting apparatus. Robert drew first blood on the beetle.

I hooked up shortly thereafter  on a black wooly bugger but lost it at the net. Had a huge follower on that same black bugger. Looked to be ten plus. Slowed down to a grind.

so we left for Popcorn where it was packed with all manner of manually operated watercraft.

Saw a couple caught there and regretted not bringing yaks. Got back in the trux and headed north.

We retired to Crosbys for lunch happily consuming their awful burgers. Arteries slowed down to one step above sludge we pointed south and tried Sandhole. Scenery was large and weather was not winter.

This lake is long enough to have a curvature of the earth effect making it seem like the north end is open water wise. This is from far south to far north end of the lake.

We threw every possible color of spoon, same with varied beetles fished carolina rigged and numerous flies.We pounded it until the sun touched the ridge with  temps dropping quickly

Mike and I left Robert on the beach and headed back to Reno. The ladies had been hunting as well at the mall by Scheels and this is how good marriages are made. Italian food in Reno with the Schaeffers and back to the hotel for more sportsmanship. It was snowing hard coming over the pass today. Bring it on.